Volume 4: The Sea and the Ship Heading North Chapter 207: Durmstrang School Trip (Fake)
Justin did not reverse the situation in the afternoon and win the championship again, but at least his final result surpassed Ron and he won the third place, while Ron ranked fourth.
The champion of this fishing competition was actually a second-grade girl named Luna Lovegood.
She had never fished before, and this time she participated in the competition purely to accompany her roommate Ginny. Even the fishing rod was made by Fred with the help of Ginny.
Maybe it was because of the novice protection period, or maybe it was just because of her good luck, but she eventually won the championship of the second Hogwarts fishing competition.
Ginny and Gabrielle, her roommates, seemed much happier than Luna, as if they had won a prize.
In the end, all the fish caught in today's competition became the students' dinner tonight.
After dinner that night, Jon called George and Neville and climbed up the mast together.
“Look at this pattern.”
He produced a piece of parchment depicting a badge consisting of a two-headed bird and a deer's head, with Cyrillic letters.
"We're going to change the sails and any other designs with the Hogwarts emblem to this."
Neville and George were both from pure-blood families. Even though they were under closed management and studied in the Hogwarts carriage like everyone else after the age of 11, they could both recognize what the badge was.
"Is this... the Durmstrang school emblem?"
Jon nodded.
"Yes, this is the insurance plan that Professor Dumbledore prepared for us. It is impossible that what we did in Azkaban would not reach the ears of the Dark Lord. He must know that someone is looking for the path he took. So we must make necessary disguises, especially when we are going to visit a wizard whose attitude is unclear about which side he leans towards."
"A week ago, Durmstrang School of Magic did send a magic ship out to sea openly, saying it was going on a school trip. But in fact, the ship returned to the school immediately after it went out to sea. The identity we have to pretend to be now is that Durmstrang School ship."
George asked in surprise.
"How did Professor Dumbledore know someone from Durmstrang? That school has the worst reputation among the three magic schools in Europe. Although this reputation has gradually shifted to Hogwarts Castle in recent years, they have always had a history of studying the dark arts."
Of course, Jon could guess some of the inside story. He had not forgotten who Durmstrang's alma mater was, although that person was expelled halfway through.
"Never mind whether it has studied the dark arts in the past. Now that we can parade around on the sea with its name, we have to be indebted to it."
As he spoke, he waved his wand and aimed it at the Hogwarts emblem on the long sail. The next second, the emblem with four animals surrounding the "H" turned into a two-headed bird and a deer head.
"Professor Dumbledore also sent some hair along with it. It belongs to the current Transfiguration professor at Durmstrang. After tonight, I will always be pretending to be him. You all need to be careful about your attire. Every day, you will announce this to all the students on the ship."
Neville said with some worry.
"Appearance and clothing are easy to solve, but what about our language? Durmstrang was founded in Northern Europe, so there shouldn't be many students who use English as their primary language, right?"
"This is indeed the most difficult problem." Jon had obviously thought about it. "But we certainly can't let everyone on the ship go down. We can select some students who can speak other languages to visit the tower. Even if someone finds out about the problem, we can kill most of the Dutch students who are out at sea."
Except for the United Kingdom and Ireland, which speak English as their mother tongue, other countries in Europe have their own main languages. However, there are still many people who know English as a common language and use it as their first language. The Netherlands , with 70% of Dutch people speaking English.
Of course, even in English, accents vary in different countries and regions, but Jon couldn't be so meticulous. At least the professor Dumbledore arranged for him was a British person, which made up for the biggest loophole.
It took them some time to replace all the emblems and decorations on the entire Hogwarts ship, and they were busy until around 11 o'clock before they went back to rest.
The next morning, which was also a weekend, Jon gathered all the students in the restaurant and explained in advance the roles they would play and the things they might encounter.
In front of them, he drank the polyjuice potion and turned into a tall, bearded, middle-aged wizard.
"Professor Johnson, this is how you will address me in the next few days. From now on, there will be no Jon Green on board. You should also be careful to think of a Dutch surname for yourself and use it when you meet outsiders. Students who only speak English can then claim to be Dutch."
"Also, any students who are fluent in a second language besides English should report to me."
Jon assigned the task and gave himself a Dutch surname so that the students would feel it was quite novel, especially after someone knowledgeable told them about the various strange and bizarre surnames of the Dutch.
As for students who can speak foreign languages, there are actually quite a few of them.
There are more than a dozen students who come to Jon to register. Either one of their parents is from other countries, or they lived abroad for a long time when they were young and mastered a foreign language through osmosis.
For example, Hermione knew some simple French. Her parents had promised her that they would take her to travel to France after she went to middle school. Out of advance preparation and interest, Hermione taught herself some common French sentences in elementary school.
And there is Luna, because her father used to be the editor-in-chief of The Quibbler (this newspaper had a hard time maintaining itself for a while in the early days of Voldemort's rule, but was later declared to have violated the Blood Propaganda Act, and everyone from the person in charge to the editor-in-chief to the reporters were either thrown into Azkaban or became wanted criminals). In order to dig into the news, he dabbled in some languages of countries around the UK, and Luna herself is more proficient in Spanish.
And the Weasley twins' best friend in the same grade - Lee Jordan, a black boy whose father lived in Germany for a period of time, so he can speak a little German .
It would certainly be impossible to bring the entire ship's students to visit the tower, but he could select some who could speak foreign languages and were smart enough to bring them along.
